Seiko Prospex Divers watches

Seiko Prospex Divers are the dive watches in Prospex, the series Seiko uses for its professional watches. Seiko's diving history goes back to 1965, when it made Japan's first diver's watch, an automatic rated to 150 m. A 300 m model followed in 1967, and in 1975 the Professional Diver's 600m became the world's first diver's watch with a titanium case.

The Turtle is the most direct link to that history. It revives the 6309, the cushion-cased diver Seiko made from 1976 for about 12 years. The SRP77x reissue keeps the shape but raises water resistance from 150 m to 200 m, swaps the 60-click bidirectional bezel for a 120-click unidirectional one, adds drilled lugs and moves the crown from 4 o'clock towards 3. Inside is the automatic 4R36, which hacks, winds by hand and runs about 41 hours, under a Hardlex crystal; the watch takes a 22 mm strap. The black SRP777 is the closest homage to the 6309. The SRP775 adds gold accents to the black dial, the SRP773 is blue on blue and the SRP779 pairs a black dial with a red and blue Pepsi bezel. Limited Turtles include the Blue Lagoon SRPB11, 6,000 pieces, and the Zimbe SRPA19, 1,299 pieces with a sapphire crystal.

The Samurai is a 43.8 mm steel diver with a Hardlex crystal, black in the SRPB51 and SRPB55 and blue in the SRPB49 and SRPB53. Its Blue Lagoon edition, the SRPB09, was also limited to 6,000 pieces.

The Marinemaster 300 (SBDX017) is a 44.3 mm steel diver under sapphire. The Trans Ocean, black as the SBDC039 and blue as the SBDC047, is a 45 mm steel diver, also under sapphire, as are the 42.6 mm SPB051 and SPB053. The SLA017 is a compact 39.9 mm diver limited to 2,000 pieces. Two big divers stand apart: the 47.7 mm SBBN035 Ninja Tuna and the 48.5 mm titanium SSF001, limited to 1,500.